Death

Two weeks ago my mothers mother passed away. She had been living in a nursing home for the last four and a half years in Ohio where I grew up. I was never close to her growing up or as an adult and I cannot remember the last time that I saw her. It was sometime after I was an adult but I cannot remember...I didn't even see her at my mom's funeral in 2004 because she was in the hospital. I felt bad the her time on earth was over but I didn't have allot of remorseful feelings beyond that.

I have been trying to remember any happy memories of her and I cannot draw any out. She was never that type of "doting" grandmother. I remember her going on vacation with us a child but I don't remember it being happy or fun.

The reason for this post is that I received some more bad news this morning. My sister called to tell me that her father had died in an accident this morning. My mom was married twice so my older sister and brother had a different father. I have been feeling remorseful all day about this...not for him necessarily but more for my sister. The was her last parent alive and she sounded so awful this morning on the phone. She was closer to my grandmother than I was so I know that her death effected her more than me and now her dad is gone so suddenly. It has not been a good November for our family.

Her father has a morning paper route and he was driving it on a county highway this morning with one of his grandchildren and he went left of center and he had a head on collision. The grandchild walked away uninjured but not him. This is the link to the online newspaper article about the accident.

http://www.sent-trib.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8481&Itemid=81

Thankfulness on Thanksgiving

I know it is a cliche but I thought since today is Thanksgiving that I would put together a list of things that I am thankful for.

Mickey - my old geriatric cat (he is now a robust 15)

IPOD – I have been able to ingest music and podcasts much more easily with this great tool


Amazon Kindle – I know we still have paper books…but I love this little gadget. It also provides me with instant gratification of any book I might want to read.


DVR – Hurray to not being a slave to network TV times.


Friends with Similar Interests – Having the opportunity to see so many cultural events this year with a variety of friends has been great. It wasn’t that long ago that I had to cajole uninterested parties to these events.


Owning my own house – I am still amazed that I accomplished that task.

Seeing my family on the holidays - I feel like this needed to be on the list.....I had a nice visit with Traci today while we drove to Ohio

IPOD

OK...I know...I know...you have herd enough stories about my IPOD...but it is so precious to me...So I was adding more podcasts to listen to on my trip to Ohio and something horrible happened....I ran out of space (I am aware that this was a long, run on sentence). I never imagined that this would happen to me, I have a 30G. When I purchased the IPOD two years ago (September 22, 2006...This was an important day for me), I thought that my capacity had way exceeded my need. How could I be more wrong. I guess housing all of my music, photos, multiple podcasts and a couple movies taxes the memory card. So now I have to be more discriminating on my content. I can't just download any old item. If I really didn't care about my money I would buy another unit with tons more space...but my frugal nature will not allow me the luxury. I will just have to live with the full 30G unit.

If only I were rich! Or less concerned with the balance on my credit cards...If I was really concerned with the balance I would not be taking a trip to Europe next year.

Couch Antics

On Sunday night I was doing some work on my laptop that involved a large amount of numerical data entry. This is a difficult task on a laptop because the numbers are above the letters. I have a wireless ten key attachment for such occasions so I decided to get up and get it to make the work easier. The ten key attachment was where I left it on the top of my dresser but the piece that plugs into the USB port was missing. You can’t use it without this piece so I began my search. I looked all over the top of the dresser, behind the dresser and in the dresser drawers. It was no where to be found. I got on the floor and looked under the bed and around the garbage can…then under the couch. It just wasn’t where I left it. I have to say that I usually don’t loose things…it is easier to not loose things since there are not any children that live at my house.

I was getting mad! I then decided to look on the couch and under the couch cushions that are in my room. Sparks was sitting on the couch so I gingerly lifted up the cushion he was sitting on to peak under it and I was disgusted. There was a ton of crap under the cushion. I couldn’t just ignore this mess so I disrupted Sparks and moved all of the cushions off of the couch. I found 10 pens….how could I loose 10 pens in the couch. I guess I just kept getting a new one. I found a pair of scissors…Whatever! I found berets and rubber bands and LOADS of crumbs. I put my hand in the side of the couch and I came back with a fistful of crumbs. How could there be so much food residue in the couch. I know I sit on it and eat…but REALLY I am an adult…I didn’t think that I spilled so much stuff. I got out the vacuum and gave the whole area a through cleaning. I honestly cannot remember the last time that I cleaned the inside of the couch. Probably when I moved into my house 4.5 years ago. I don’t think that I am a dirty person…I do spring cleaning stuff. Just a couple months ago I moved all of the furniture in my bedroom and vacuumed the baseboards. I guess I will have to add this to my cleaning repertoire.

The bad thing is I NEVER FOUND THE THING I WAS LOOKING FOR! The ten key attachment piece is gone. I guess the kitties have a secret hiding place for these items. Whatever! Hint Hint Hint…I might need a new one for Christmas ;)

Christmas Decorations

I decided to put up my outside Christmas decoration on Saturday. Lou came over with Wyatt, Sarah and Paige to help me. Since, I am too scared to climb up the ladder to the attic; we made that our first task. I have never gone up there and I don’t ever want to. I don’t think that I am afraid of heights but I know it would REALLY HURT to fall out of the attic. We brought down about ten boxes of inside and outside decorations, it seamed like a lot for one person. It has been three years since I have put up any decorations and it felt a bit like shopping because I had purchased some outside clearance items in the prior years that I have never hung up or used. Last year I was very stressed with school and I didn’t have the time, energy or the patience to make an effort. Then the year before that (2006) we decided to go to Florida for Christmas and I was also in school so I thought why bother, since I wasn’t going to be home anyway.

It was very cold on Saturday afternoon…when I looked at my temperature widget it said it was 27F degrees. I bundled up in a coat, scarf and gloves and tried to suck it up and not complain because it was nice to have help with this task. Lou had brought a glass of diet coke outside with him and it kept freezing over. I don’t think he was very happy about that. The children were surprising cheerful to help us with this task outside. I guess it was fun for them to hang out in the cold. I let the children place the lawn decorations…I think that they did a very good job.

I love driving home when it is dark and seeing my house all lit up and sparkling. It really puts me in the Christmas spirit.

Let me know what you think?
This is a little lit up tree in the yard.

The moving penguin.

Aren't the lit up gift boxes and candy cane's cute?

Lou was very proud of himself when he hung these lights.

I know it is fuzzy but it really shows off the colors.

I wonder if Joanne is having any trouble sleeping with all of the lights in the front yard since they are directly in front of her bedroom window.

Twilight

I went to see the new Twilight movie on Saturday afternoon and I was anticipating really loving the movie because of my great love of the books. I am sad to report that the movie just didn't have the same appeal for me as the book. I liked the actors that were picked for the movie. I feel that they represented what I had in my imagination for what the characters should look like...especially Bella. But the movie had a fair amount of cheese as well as a soap opera feel.

The thing that I liked best about the book was the romance between Edward and Bella...the movie just didn't capture this for me. I don't think that I ever saw the actress smile in the movie and she always looked so sad. My favorite scene in the book was when Edward took Bella to an open field to show her how her how his skin sparkles and just generally falling in love. This wasn't really in the movie. Then all of these things were punctuated by the fact that there were several young girls in the audience who were laughing, clapping and making comments in a boisterous manner in the theatre. It was very distracting.

Another thing that I didn't like was the visual aspects of the film. Much of it was in a very close up perspective to the actors. I wanted them to pull back a bit. Most of the time you could only see the actors faces on the screen...I just wanted to see more of the scene.

I feel like I would want to see the move again by myself at home, but it didn't capture the magic of the book in the way that the Harry Potter series has been so successful.

I am sad that I didn't like it more.

I pre bought the tickets online because I had herd lots of hype that there were extremely long lines for this film. I felt a bit ripped off because there was never a line and the theatre was only about half full. Then I overpaid for the tickets....it is $10.50 to buy them online. Shouldn't I have paid an afternoon rate for the movie??? It was at 4:10 in the afternoon.

Spike Heels

Friday night I met a friend for dinner and to see a play at the University of Indianapolis. We went to see Spike Heels by Theresa Rebeck.

This is the schools description of the play-

Studio Theatre
Pygmalion goes awry in this contemporary comedy which explores sex, power, and the possibility of a four sided love triangle. The combatants are a sexy, volatile young woman and three upscale Boston types: a writer, a lawyer and a fiancee in sensible shoes.

I really enjoyed this production. There were only four actors and they had great chemistry together. This was about a lower class girl trying to make something better of herself and how to deal with these two new men in her life and one of the men's finance. The F bomb was dropped practically every other word but it was fitting to the characters and story. Sometimes when I go to these productions at the school you never know what you are going to get. The first one this year, Into the Woods, was just awful. The acting was mediocre and the play itself left much to be desired. I am glad that Spike Heels was so much better. BTW...the lead actress wore five inch heels through much of the play....WOW...I am glad that wasn't me.

Speaking of shoes I had an interesting observation while I was people watching at the school. There was a group of about six girls together and they were all dressed alike in jeans and high heels of various bright colors. Is that the style now...am I missing something. I guess I NEVER wear heels when I wear jeans...to me it is either a sneaker or boot outfit.